Bleach 512 – Ichigo, Shame of Soul Society

It’s about time Ichigo showed up. Predictable, yes, but still midly exciting, and we’ve been waiting many weeks for this. If this was the anime, there would be badass music blasting in the background as he makes his dramatic entrance and destroys some random Sternritter in one shot. We’ve seen this scene many times before, and it’s no coincidence that Ichigo always shows up at the most desperate hour. If you were wondering, the boy wonder is indeed here to save Soul Society yet again, as the dying Byakuya asks him to do. With the transmitter that he had with him in his prison that allowed him to “hear” Soul Society, he seems to be aware of what transpired already, conveniently sparing us from a recap of everything. Ichigo springs right into action against Juha Bach, blocking him from retreating. I think this is first time we’ll get to see his new powers tested in action against a really tough opponent since he received a part of all the captains’ reiatsu at the end of the Fullbringer arc. Also with his anger and willpower are probably at his peak right now, Ichigo will probably blast his powers at the Vandenreich for a bit and possibly land a few good hits, though it’s pretty clear Juha won’t be going down anytime soon. Even if Ichigo has some new abilities, I’m sure he has contingency plans to deal with such wildcards; plus, someone who OHKO-ed the Captain Commander won’t be defeated by just waving a bankai around.

Unfortunately Ichigo’s appearance was literally the only thing that happened this week, and the Zero Squad, Urahara, Isshin and Ryuuken haven’t made an appearance yet either, so that’s all I have to say for this chapter. Even though Bleach has always been like this, I’ll admit I’m getting rather impatient with the pacing of arc.

Despite having been in print for much less time, it’s already showing an evident build up to something though. Toriko is definitely more exciting of a read at the moment and will probably remain that way as long as you’re comparing it to Bleach.

Of course not, then where would the plot go after the main antagonist is gone? He’s going to get defeated easily, the villains will leave confident they have won, Zero Squad will show up, Ichigo will train with someone to find a new power and then he’ll kill the Quincies with that, but not before the remaining Shinigami get into more drawn out fights with the remaining baddies, Ichigo fights Juha Bach, end.

Not until I see a funeral will I belief that Byakuya is death. I have seen way to many “how the hell did you survive a wound like that” to belief that a character is death even if they have a giant hole blasted into their chest or use their fullbring to self destruct at point blank range.

Juha Bach is incredibly powerful and resourceful, taking out the Captain Commander with only a few swords swings in a gruesome way. Only way Ichigo can beat him is if he had a powerful technique. Besides Ichigo always seem to beat his opponents through brute force anyway. I wonder if the Zero Squad will step in unexpected during their battle.

Psssh…..the ones I am really waiting for to do some REAL damage are Chad and Orihime. How come Orihime or Chad never get the badass shading treatment like Ichigo gets in this chapter? Forget Byakuya dying, that’s the real tragedy here.

Yeah… I loved bleach when chad was having his character development and powers progressing…and actually had a point of being their….now hes joined the many useless existences in bleach overshadowed by strawberryboy.

Chad is like Yamcha now, his potential is far too low compare to those monsters that keep would be appearing now. That said, Chad dont even have as many role as Yamcha. At least Orihime still has a role of convenient healer

Where’s Orihime when these times are the most crucial!!! Even if Ichigo beats Juha Bach now, I feel it is too late to have save “half” of Soul Society when the top fighters of the Gotei 13 are going down for the count.

Only thing not predictable about this chapter was the fact that Byakuya is still alive, and I could probably just attribute that to my slowly down spiraling interest in the actual on goings of this war.

Like I said, I blame my dwindling interest. My surprise is clearly misplaced. Kubo doesn’t kill the heroes. Some way, some how, Yamamoto’s heart continues to beat as well and that gruesome dismembering was all for show. woo sarcasm.

Ok that makes more sense, but still those first few pages were confusing. I didn’t get it because I didn’t know that was Akon at first, I usually identify him with the markings on his head but his head was cropped. Then I didn’t put together that Shaz shot him in the back because it just looked like a random person on the ground. I couldn’t tell where they were because the background wasn’t defined. It looked like HM, but I guess it’s the research center…But how does that make sense because Ichigo emerged from the sky and not the 12th division headquarters. What was the point of Shaz Domino? He literally had 3 panels of screen time.

I agree, tite kubo said that this arc will be as long as the Aizen arc, so that’s another 10 years he will be working on it!! And honestly, he should have ended it at ichi go losing his powers. Then, he could have like, had his younger sister Karin obtain shinigami powers to end it or something. I’m honestly surprised that recently Bleach and even Naruto has been kicked off their high horses from first place in jump polls!
I think, even one week, Kuroko no basuke topped the big three animes!! That was exciting!!

Geez, couldn’t Ichigo have done something worthwhile in HM… like, y’know, save Halibel or SOMETHING? That way he’d get at least Arancarr/Espada-lvl help on this – which I think, would have been really badassed. His own army of Hollow vs the Quincy.

Okay, okay, I really wanted Neliel to be backing up Ichigo on this. I want my green-hair moe again!

Sorry if my last comment sounded harsh, but that’s what I think after following the series for almost four and a half years (216 episodes), and then felt tired of it, just like that. I’ll respect your opinion, yet it pains me to see people still following this manga.

At this point, even if some interesting development did happen, I don’t think I would even get excited for it. It’s difficult to name even one good quality about Bleach at this point. Pacing, art, plot, and characters are rather stagnated and uninspired.

Ichigo’s gone all Xanxus on us with the face thing. (Katekyo Hitman Reborn joke.)

Seriously though, yes he looks great and it’s a tense confrontation, however I can’t forsee Ichigo doing anything against Juha asides from being defeated. Let’s be realistic, this arc isn’t nearly enough of the ways in for the final boss battle to happen just yet. We haven’t even see Uryu or Ryuken do anything! And in an arc about Quincies that’s just weird.

My favorite thing about reading naruto, one piece, and bleach one after the other is realizing how much faster reading bleach is. Naruto and one piece each take a couple of minutes but bleach is over in 30 seconds. No story, only fight scenes.

Juha Bach seemed scared when Ichigo exploded into soul society. I wonder if Ichigo is stronger than the Captain Commmander was. We don’t have to worry because if Ichigo is severely wounded his inner hollow will take over and decimate all quincies except for the leader. I can also see Aizen returning once the Zero Squad arrives since it’s the Soul King or whoever the Zero Squad is protecting who Aizen wants to kill.

I like this prediction and can see it happening. I think it would be interest to see some dialogue between Juha and Aizen, although technically Juha is now the stronger of the two (with the Head Captain’s Bankai anyway).

The guy that released Ichigo looked to me a lot like Aizen in his formar appereance when he was a captain. excluding the glasses. I know it’s apparently Akon but who know… tomorrow we’ll know. And Shaz Domino, did he get one hitted? some of these panels are soo confusing, there’s one panel where it looks like its a foot? Idk